


Love in the Age of Idiots

by tothineownelfbetrue



Category: Disenchantment (TV 2018)
Genre: AU from the beginning of The Electric Princess, Drunken Confessions, Elfo is clueless, Everyone Thinks They're Together, Fluff and Angst, Idiots in Love, Luci being a demon, Luci has feelings, Luci has little tolerance for idiots, Luci swears a lot, Luci tries to one up Elfo at friendship, M/M, Mistaken for Dating, Sad Luci, almost a love confession, mentions of drinking, minor mention of canonical character death, no beta we die like men, past Elfo/Kissy, past Luci/Kissy, people meddling in Luci's love life, some use of swear words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-03
Updated: 2020-03-10
Packaged: 2021-02-23 02:47:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 17,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23004508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tothineownelfbetrue/pseuds/tothineownelfbetrue
Summary: Luci's having a hard time coming to grips with his feelings for Elfo.  Sure, he gave up everything to save the idiot's life, but doesn't mean he's IN LOVE or something stupid like that.  Except he absolutely is and it's getting harder and harder for him to keep up the self-denial.But what is a demon to do when the guy he's in love with is being so damn nice to him?  Show him up by being even nicer back, of course!   Elfo would never see that coming!or: That fic where Luci is nice out of spite and it comes back to bite him in the ass.
Relationships: Elfo/Luci (Disenchantment)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 95





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, I've really been meaning to write a fluff fic, or at least one that's not super angst heavy and this is kind of the result. This takes place as an alternate version of the events of The Electric Princess, so Luci and Elfo are roommates, but the rest of the things didn't really occur. 
> 
> This fic is complete. The next chapter will be updated next Tuesday.

Luci was drunk. 

Tipsy, really. Even now, devoid of his powers, it was difficult for him to get drunk without a lot of effort. At the moment, he was keeping himself preoccupied by nipping at the bottle of alcohol he was using to fill the glass belonging to the current patron sitting at the bar. The man was also tipsy, which was probably why he hadn’t noticed that Luci was blatantly watering down the beer right in front of him.

It was probably also why the man wasn’t complaining about the fact that Luci was talking. 

Not talking to him. Not really. He was just kind of talking in the general vicinity of the person sitting there. Normally he wouldn’t have done it because he knew just how annoying it was to have some drunk idiot rambling in your general direction. But right now the drunk idiot was Luci and he didn’t give a shit.

“Elfo is so annoying.” he began, banging his paw against the bar in emphasis. “He keeps asking me stupid questions all the time, like ‘How was your day, Luci’ and ‘Can you just pick up the fifty bottles of beer and the dead chicken you left all over the living room?’ It’s his house too, damn it. He can pick up my dead chicken!”

The man nodded slowly, probably not even hearing Luci. He parroted back the words in what Luci recognized as an attempt to sound like he was listening to the conversation while not actually hearing more than every fifth word or so. “Yeah. You pick up that chicken. _Hic_.”

Luci was on a roll or he might have cared more about someone else using one of his favourite tactics on him. “And he’s always trying to be _nice_. Who needs people to be _nice_ to them? I don’t! I’m a demon god damn it!”

“I thought you were a talking cat.” Somehow the man had been aware enough to register his words and Luci immediately bristled, smoothly going on the defensive.

“I am. Meow.” His meow was a little pathetic, but it was enough to prove his point. “See? Cats meow. So obviously I’m a cat.”

The man couldn’t argue with this logic and bobbed his head again, agreeably. “That is true. Cats do meow.” If the patron thought more of it, he didn’t say so, instead banging his glass against the counter. Luci hastily poured him some more watered down beer. The man took a couple of gulps and wiped at his lips. “So, you’re having problems, huh?” He leered a little. “He must be good in bed if you put up with all that.”

For a few seconds, Luci’s brain stopped working.

He’d heard wrong. He had to have. He stared at the man as if doing so could somehow take those words from the air and shove them back down the drunk fool’s throat. “What?” He finally managed, more a sputter than a yell. “What the fuck are you talking about? We aren’t… I mean we don’t…” His fur bristled, his fingers clenching so hard against his own glass that he could feel it starting to creak under his paws. He was struggling to figure out how the guy had come to such an obviously ridiculous conclusion. Him and Elfo? Pff. As if! “It’s not like that! I hate him. He’s an annoying little bag of guts and whining. Also, he stinks.”

Okay. The last part was a lie. Elfo smelled pretty good. Amazing, even. He’d been telling himself for a long time that it was just because of that marinade he’d almost been cooked in, but it had been long enough that it was pretty obvious that it was really just the way Elfo smelled.

The drunk patron only smiled at him in a way that made Luci want to clock him over the head with the glass he was still holding onto for dear life. “You’ve got it bad, don’t you kitty cat?”

Being directly accused of such an un-demonlike thing was the last straw. Luci wasn’t drunk enough to put up with being accused of… of having _feelings_ for someone, much less that stupid elf. He snarled, slamming his glass down against the bar. It shattered in his paws. The patron let out a swear, just sober enough to register the pain as bits of glass scraped across the back of his hand. 

“What the hell-” The man began, but Luci cut him off, looming as much as he could with his small body.

“Hell, yeah. Hell is what I’ll make your life if you don’t _get the fuck out of my bar, **right** now!_” Something about his stance must have given the man the impression that he was serious because he stared at Luci for only a couple of seconds before scrambling out of his seat, falling over himself a couple of times as he made his way to the door.

That should have been enough, but Luci was on edge. The alcohol that should have been enough to dull his senses a little and mellow him out was instead running hot through his body and he jumped up onto his bar, snapping out at the rests of the lingering patrons who hadn’t actually been involved in any of this. “Okay. Pack it up losers!” When bleary heads started turning toward him, he raised his voice more. “You heard me! Get out! I mean everyone! You don’t have to go home, but you can’t fucking stay here!”

There was grumbling, which was no surprise, but the majority of them had learned in his brief time in business - and probably from the previous barkeep as well - that messing with the owner of your drinking establishment could lead to forced sobriety. The various humans - and elves - made their way to the door, muttering and stumbling. They left a mess of overturned glasses and chairs in their wake. Luci didn’t care. He slammed the door shut as soon as the last person was gone.

The bar was a mess. Worse than his room, the one time with the chicken. But the heat was starting to ebb out of Luci’s body and he felt tired and heavy. He’d have all day tomorrow to clean this sty up… or more, if he decided not to bother opening up at all for the next evening. Either way, he just wanted to be home. Like… right now.

He barely had the wherewithal to lock the door behind himself as he left the bar, making his wobbly way home. He tripped twice on the way up the stairs to his shared apartment and he was sobering up enough to feel the pain. It was bringing back the memory of why he’d been angry in the first place. 

Elfo. Stupid Elfo. So maybe he _was_ feeling things, but if so, it was definitely all Elfo’s fault. It was some ploy or trick on the elf’s part to get to him. It had to be.

By the time he managed to reach the door to their apartment, he’d pretty well convinced himself of all the ways Elfo was culpable and he was the wronged innocent in this whole thing. He didn’t care. He didn’t _love_ Elfo. If he did love Elfo, it was still not his responsibility… How could he help but love Elfo?

Oh god.

He froze, just outside their door, his paw on the handle.

He didn’t. He didn’t…

He did though. He did. He loved Elfo.

Luci sank down in front of their door and heaved for a few seconds, shaking. Fuck him. How could he love Elfo? How could such a thing even happen? Elfo’s fault. He reminded himself. It was all Elfo’s fault. Being nice to him. Being all _concerned_ and wanting to ‘get to know him’. Elfo wanted him to be weak and to care. Luci let out a rasping breath as he pushed to his feet again, pushing the door open impatiently.

He had a second swell of energy, fueled entirely by his anger and a weird sense of _betrayal_ over this effort on Elfo’s part, the attempt to get to him like this.

“Elfo!” He wasn’t usually in fighting mode but he was now. He stood there swaying, his tail whipping back and forth as he screeched out the elf’s name in frustration and challenge. There was no response the first time or the second. The third time he howled Elfo’s name to the air, there was a thump, then another. The door to Elfo’s room opened and the elf peered out blearily, still fully dressed because he was a weirdo who slept in all his clothes.

“What…” The elf squinted at him, his voice high and scratchy with sleep. “Luci? What’s going on? It’s really late!” He blinked a few times, frowning, then he opened his door the rest of the way. Something about his stance changed, subtly, but Luci wasn’t sure what it meant. Either way, Elfo was staring at him and he was shifting from an initial annoyance to worry. Worried. The asshole.

“You know what’s going on!” Luci snapped back, marching forward, but unsteadily, to try and grab Elfo by the front of the shirt and shake him. “Look what you did!” When Elfo only gave his head a slight shake, baffled by whatever Luci was talking about, the demon let out an affronted growl and stood up as straight as he could, gesturing at himself. This. He did _this_. Elfo was the reason Luci was shit-faced right now. “You did it on purpose! Admit it!”

Elfo stared, his hand reached out like he wanted to touch Luci but then he stopped himself. “I don’t…” He swallowed, helplessly. “I don’t understand. What did I do?”

Luci’s ears went back flat against his head, lost in the darkness of his shadowy fur for a second as he let out a fake laugh. “You…” He couldn’t. He just couldn’t deal with that look, the way Elfo still looked more worried than angry. He’d seen Elfo angry before… he’d even gotten Elfo angry at him before. Why will he not get angry now? “Demons don’t…” He sputtered over the words, choked them out like they didn’t sit well on his tongue. “We don’t _do_ this! We don’t _**care**_ god damn it!”

Something in Elfo’s gaze went soft for a second, his fingers shaking as he curled his hands toward his chest. There was a little hitch in the elf’s shoulders that didn’t make any sense to Luci. For a moment his gaze flitted away, only to return to Luci after a few seconds. “You… you care about me?”

The demon stood up as straight as he could manage, looking at Elfo like he was a moron. “Well doy! Do you see any other sweet bastard standing here?” He would have said more, but Elfo’s arms wrapped around him and for a few seconds he was crushed against the elf’s chest in a hug. He stiffened, his fur standing on end, his tail whipping back and forth in frantic strokes. His paws came up and he almost - _almost_ \- clawed at Elfo’s arms to make him let go. 

But he didn’t. His paws remained in the air for a second, clenching and unclenching and then, shaking and hesitant, they settled around Elfo. It wasn't a hug because demons didn’t do that. But it was… a grip. A very demonlike and uncaring grip.

It lasted for a few seconds and those were the best few seconds of Luci’s life so far. Then he remembered that he was angry at Elfo, that the reason he was even here is that he came to chew Elfo out for this attempt to make him soft and squishy like a stupid mortal. He shoved Elfo away with all the force he could muster. It wasn't very much, but it was enough to catch the elf off-guard and send him stumbling. 

For a second, Elfo reached out to him again, arms outstretched, trying to touch him. He bristled all over, fur on end, his breath emerging in a hiss that was kind of terrifying even to him. Elfo froze where he stood, his entire small green body tense. Then he took a step back like he was going to retreat, and Luci's chest seized. 

Elfo was going to go. He was going to go away. It was the only thing that registered in Luci’s tipsy brain. 

But Elfo couldn’t go. He remembered the last time Elfo left him - _dead. Bleeding out. gone_ \- and the panic mounted further. His paws whipped out, fast as a snake strike, grabbing hold of Elfo by the front of his shirt and dragging him forward again. “Don’t.” The words emerged in a mewl. Almost a sob. “Don’t go.” Elfo hesitated. Luci could feel it. He gripped tighter, burying his muzzle against Elfo’s chest, breathing him in. “You can’t leave me.” Luci’s voice was choked, muffled against Elfo’s shirt. “I can’t do this without you…”

“D-do what…?” Elfo asked, his voice barely a whisper.

Luci didn’t answer right away. There wasn’t anything he could say that wouldn’t give too much of himself away and even with his drunken state, he was holding on to what he had left with tenacity. He couldn’t just go on pretending like things were fine, like he hadn’t given up a hell of a lot to be here. He couldn’t say that though, not when Elfo and Bean hadn’t even known about his whole self-sacrifice thing. Sure, it might have been gratifying to shove it in their faces, show how much better he was than they were because he could do something stupid and generous, but he knew that as soon as it was out, he’d have to deal with their pity and he had spent too long looking like a total badass to be taken down by a moment of sentimental weakness.

So he didn’t say anything for a second, just grimacing as he tried to make sense of the confusing mishmash of his thoughts. He couldn’t begin to explain why he felt like this for Elfo. It made no logical sense. Hell didn’t necessarily operate on logic, but it was a tool often used by demons anyway. “How do you do it?” He rasped, earning a confused look from the elf.

“D-do? What did I do?”

“It’s stupid, but you make everything better…” He laughed a little at himself as the words hit the air. Humiliating, but true. Despite everything, he’d somehow been affected by that stupid mortal gooeyness. “Why do you make things better?” it was a question for the universe, not for Elfo. “It doesn’t even matter...” Stupid alcohol. Why were his senses so fuzzy? Why was his tongue so loose right now? He would have preferred to get angry and spew obscenities at some random passerby over apparently being a sad depressed drunk with _feelings_. Who knew? 

Mortality did things to a demon, apparently. But he couldn’t stop himself from lamenting, even though he knew it was going to just bite him in the ass in the end. “I got it wrong…” He said, soft enough that he wasn’t sure Elfo could even hear. He hoped not. “It was a mistake…”

He wasn’t sure himself which part he was referring to. Had his mistake been to take this assignment in the first place? He’d been seeking personal glory, an increase in his stature… not whatever the hell this was. Or had it been his mistake to choose them over Hell? What had he been thinking? Some kind of madness had seized him, that was it.

_Yeah. It’s called ‘Love’ dumbass._

Yeah. Of course. That was where he went wrong. Demons weren’t made to love. It was the height of foolishness. It went against their very nature. “It would never have worked…” He wasn’t sure if he was talking out loud or not, his eyes pressed closed as he tried to work his own thoughts out. Perhaps it would give him some semblance of…. Closure, if not peace. A demon being in love just didn’t work. What had he been thinking?

“What? What doesn’t work?”

_Oh, so he had said it out loud..._

“This!” Luci gave a wide gesture all around him that didn’t clarify a damn thing. “All of this. **_Feeling_** things.” His laugh was mocking, self-deprecating. “/Caring/ about people. It’s wrong.” He couldn’t say the actual L-word yet and probably he never would. It was so fucking stupid.

Luci pressed his muzzle up beneath Elfo’s chin, breathing in small hitches against his neck and digging clawed fingers tightly into his arms. Elfo quivered for a second, probably from the painful manhandling, but after that small hesitation, his arms came up, curling around the demon. “Oh Luci…” He breathed, and Luci would have pulled back at what was inevitably going to be a moment of pity, but at the last minute he just turned his head back against Elfo’s chest and stayed like that. “It’s not wrong to… care about someone.” 

_Maybe not for you._ Luci thought. He would have been more bitter about it if Elfo’s hands hadn’t been moving, petting into his fur in a way that was both awkward and somehow soothing. Luci leaned into the brush of the hands against his ears without thinking about it.

“I’m glad.” Elfo said and Luci blinked blearily, tilting his head a little to look at Elfo from the corner of his eye. Glad? For what? For being dragged through Hell and then brought back to this shitty excuse of a life? Glad to be hanging out with a pathetic, soppy excuse for a demon and a human woman he had an unrequited crush on? “I’m happy you care.” Elfo said and derailed Luci’s self-aggrandizing chain of thought with those simple words. “I...I care about you too…”

_Of course he would. Stupid sappy elf._ It made Luci feel a little better despite himself. Besides, he reassured himself that it didn’t mean all that much… Elfo was probably half asleep anyway… surely he wouldn’t remember this little breakdown?

Even if he did, Luci could find ways to blackmail him into shutting the hell up about it, so he might as well enjoy it while he could. He was purring as he let his cheek bump against Elfo’s for a second, well aware that he was going to hate himself in the morning. The action did wring a slight laugh from Elfo, but it was more delighted than mocking. Luci shuffled again, but the motion made the room do a little dip and spin around him and he was forced to dig his claws into Elfo’s shirt so he didn’t fall flat on his face. Elfo stiffened at the feeling of his claws, catching hold of him by the shoulders.

“You don’t look good.” The elf tutted over him and he gave his tail a slow, dismissive flick that succeeded at knocking over a vase. 

Luci responded to this obvious observation by pressing his paws against Elfo’s cheeks, smooshing the elf’s face between them and smiling at the way the action made the elf look like he had a dumb fish expression. “Well, you look pretty good.” A breath escaped in a hiccup, even as Elfo’s eyes widened. Was that a hint of a flush on the elf’s cheeks or was it just the weird lighting? Also what direction was up?

“I think… I think maybe you need to go to bed.” Elfo concluded, not unreasonably.

Luci shrugged at that. “I think maybe you need to come to bed with me.” Too obvious? God he hoped so. But also he hoped Elfo was as oblivious as he’d always thought because, _**damn**_ , that had been way too obvious...

If Elfo knew what Luci was going on about with that offer, he didn’t say anything. Instead, he seemed preoccupied with being a good friend or something. Luci made a small noise of protest as the elf shuffled, not pushing him away but kind of awkwardly guiding him in the direction of his room. Luci grumbled anew as Elfo let him sink down onto his cushion, petting at his ears briefly. It was only this action that kept Luci from actively scratching in his general direction at being manhandled like this. “Get off!” he growled, the sound vibrating through his chest.

Elfo draped a blanket across him. “‘Night Luci.”

Luci muttered something about how Elfo couldn’t tell him what to do, but the words were mostly muffled as he buried his face in the pillow and let himself drift off.

-

He’d never had a hangover. Not exactly. Demons didn’t metabolize alcohol like mortals and it mostly burned away in their systems before they had to worry about the inevitable consequences. The blurriness when he tried to open his eyes made him wince and the brightness stung too. He raised an arm to cover his face with a groan. “What…” When had he gotten into his own bed?

The evening came rushing back to him then, and he sat up. The sudden motion made the world do a dip and a roll around him and he immediately felt his gorge rise in a totally unfamiliar way. He barely managed to roll off of the cushion before he hacked up on the floor. He wasn’t sure how long he was there, crouched on all fours, waiting for the room to stop spinning around him. So this was a hangover? It was a lot more fun when it was happening to someone else and he could watch. 

It wasn’t even the worst thing about this morning either, because his fuzzy memories of the previous evening were setting off alarm bells in his mind. He couldn’t recall exactly what he’d said to Elfo but it had been humiliating, he was sure of that much.

Speak of the elf… there was a knock on his door that went right through him and made his head throb even worse than it already was. Luci groaned, shuffling to push his face against the side of his cushion. “What?!” His voice came out shriller than he intended, but he didn’t really care for once.

“Luci?” Elfo hesitated on the other side of the door. “Are you okay?” When the demon didn’t reply very quickly, the door creaked. Elfo pushed it open and peeked inside. Luci would have told him to go away but it was already too late for that as the elf eased carefully into the room. A brief flicker of distaste crossed his green face at the state of the room but for once he was smart enough to not actually say anything about Luci’s slobbishness. “You were really upset last night…”

He didn’t want to talk about last night. God damn. But the elf was persistent and if he didn’t nip this in the bud right now, he’d never hear the end of it. “I was really drunk last night.” He griped out, trying to come across as more angry than worried. That didn’t change the elf’s expression, in fact, he only appeared more concerned.

“Yeah. You really were.” Elfo rubbed at the back of his neck. “But… did you mean those things you said?” His yellow eyes fixed on Luci and it was such a strange look he was giving the demon. What had Luci said again? It had been some sappy thing, hadn’t it? Just his luck. Elfo was still the type to like stuff like that. He probably thought Luci was saying nice things to him because they were ‘friends’ or something.

_Hopefully, it was just that, anyway._

“Yeah, sure.” Luci sighed, reaching up a hand to pinch at the bridge of his nose. 

Elfo seemed to perk up at that, the sentimental fool. “Really? I mean…” He hesitated as Luci shot him a sharp look, settling himself down a little. “I’m…. glad.” His gaze darted away for a second. “Sometimes it’s hard to know how you feel.”

“Yeah. Doy. That’s deliberate. I’m a demon and we don’t talk about our feelings. How long have you known me? You should know that much.”

Elfo let out a little huff of air, but he was more amused than upset, further proof that Luci was losing his touch. “Okay.” He shuffled in closer, dropping to one knee beside Luci’s cushion and reaching out a hand to pet at Luci’s shoulder and back. Despite Luci’s foul mood, it felt good. “But you know… if you ever do want to talk about feelings...?”

“Yeah. I know.” Luci leaned into Elfo’s hand, eyes closed for a moment as he enjoyed the touch. “If I ever decide to turn into a useless sad sack, I’ll come to you first.” He hoped Elfo could read the sarcasm in his voice, but he wasn’t sure he was making it obvious enough. After a little longer of this attention, he reached up to push Elfo’s hand away. “Look, about last night…”

Elfo’s gaze fixed on him, his green form almost vibrating with how on-attention he was. “Yes?” There was something odd about his tone, too-hopeful even for him. Luci ignored it.

“It was… I was really drunk okay. That’s…” Threatening Elfo rarely did any good, but perhaps he could play more to the elf’s sympathies instead. He was pretty susceptible to that kind of thing. “It’s humiliating okay. Demons don’t do feelings so…”

As he’d predicted, Elfo’s gaze turned sympathetic at that and despite the fact that Luci had pushed him away just a second ago, he reached out to draw the demon into a hug. “Of course.” Luci was relieved that this persuasion had turned out to be so easy. “I know you don’t like all this emotional stuff.”

“Right,” Luci replied smoothly. “And if anyone found out about this… feelings stuff… it’d be pretty bad.” Bad for his ego and his state of mind and his public image. “So, as my ‘friend’,” he almost choked trying to get the word out. Sure, he might have been in love with the dumbass, but actually admitting he was friends with someone who was as uncool as Elfo was straining even his limits. “If you could just not mention it to anyone else, that’d be great.” He almost followed it up with a threat anyway, just out of principle, but he didn’t get the opportunity.

“I won’t say anything,” Elfo promised, drawing back enough to meet Luci’s gaze with a candid expression. He looked so earnest that Luci wanted to laugh. Then, as Luci was pondering how much he could actually trust the elf to not blab it out accidentally, Elfo leaned in, letting their foreheads bump together in a gesture that was even more affectionate than normal. It drove the other thoughts out of Luci’s mind temporarily as he looked at the elf foolishly. “I’ll let you bring it up to anyone else, whenever you’re ready.”

What was with that cryptic bullshit? Whenever he was ready. He’d never be ready to talk about his feelings. It had only taken copious amounts of alcohol for him to even admit he had feelings. But whatever, he could deal with this. As long as Elfo thought he was doing something good, Luci was confident that he’d at least try to not rat him out. Maybe he’d find something else to distract the elf from his little breakdown. It wasn’t like Elfo had the best attention span.

“Yeah. Thanks.” The small words of gratitude sounded stilted on his tongue but earned him another hug before Elfo released him and got to his feet. 

“Did you want to go get brunch?” Elfo asked him, reaching a hand down in offering. Luci looked at it, ears flicking back uncertainly. He wasn’t usually up this early - that was to say, before noon - so he had no idea if Elfo would normally have made this offer or if it was just another instance of the elf taking pity on him after his whole emotional outburst. Elfo wiggled his fingers in invitation, probably thinking he was being welcoming or something. “It would help with your hangover.” 

Okay. That was a better point, at least. He knew that Elfo had dealt with hangovers before, especially since he went drinking with Bean and Luci, both of whom had a much higher tolerance for sheer quantities of alcohol. Now that the queasiness was starting to settle a little, there was a bit of an ache in his gut.

“Yeah. Sure.” He hesitated for a second, tempted to push Elfo’s hand away and get up on his own, but there was another part of him - that sentimental part that he’d been trying to push back for a long time - that reminded him that he didn’t usually have the opportunity to receive affection from Elfo without having to push back at him to avoid being seen as weak. This was a rare chance…

He slid his paw into Elfo’s hand, letting the elf help him up. It was just a momentary lapse.

-

That should have been the end of things. 

With Elfo and Luci having agreed to not discuss the events related to Luci’s emotional breakdown, things settled back into what was, for them, normal routine. Except… not. While Luci had expected things to be just like they had been before he’d gotten wasted and blabbed about feelings, Elfo was actually behaving… strangely. Even for Elfo.

He was almost… attentive. Normally the idea of having someone eager to be nice to him and suck up to him over things would have been kind of ideal. He wasn’t a cat, but even a demon could admit that the idea of such worshipful behaviour had its appeal. But after a day or two of this low-key affection and consideration toward him, he was already getting pretty sick of it. If he’d wanted people to treat him like every little thing he did deserved a pat on the back, he would have stayed in Maru and pretended to be a feline for the rest of his now-mortal existence.

Elfo wasn’t being too over the top about it, fortunately. Just little brushes of his hand on Luci’s shoulder or bringing his drink from the bar instead of waiting for Luci to get his own. The latter was even odder, considering that Luci owned the damned bar and was the bartender. He almost made a crack about how he didn’t need an employee and he wasn’t going to pay Elfo for this nonsense, but the smile that the elf gave him when passing him a poorly mixed drink forstalled any snarky remarks. He just took the drink and grumbled the entire time he was sipping at it.

In private, it was a different matter. Mostly because it took everything in Luci to keep from just indulging in the kind of attention he wished he was being given in a different context. He didn’t want pity-attention or even Elfo being a good friend-slash-goody two shoes. He wanted something more. 

It seemed weird to think that he didn’t want Elfo to just be nice to him when he was in his self-pitying mode over all he’d given up in his life. But if Elfo didn’t… 

_If he didn’t love Luci, god damn it_

Then it just piled on to the other emotions Luci was struggling with. Maybe guilt was one of them and that was why it frustrated him so much. Demons shouldn’t have been able to feel guilt and the fact that he did was only further evidence of how far he’d fallen. If Elfo had actually had feelings for him and it had been something mutual then it would have been a happy thing that he’d brought Elfo back. But up until only a few days ago, the elf had been more miserable over it than anything and every sigh and every flash of anger had only solidified the fact that Elfo didn’t want to come back for Luci’s sake. He didn’t _feel_ anything for Luci.

It was enough to make Luci feel both angry and guilty at the same time and he hated it. 

Elfo had been in higher spirits recently and Luci wasn’t sure why, but he wished he could just feel happy about the change and relieved that things were going back to some sense of normalcy after all the chaos in their lives. Instead he was being reminded of the things he’d liked and the reason he’d… ugh… why he’d fallen for Elfo in the first place.

He was sitting on the couch and Elfo invited himself over to sit beside Luci. Fine. He could deal with that. But when Elfo reached over and started idly petting his ears, he really should have pushed the elf away with a sputter about how Elfo was just a sap and how he wasn’t a cat damn it. He meant to, honestly. 

Instead, he leaned into the touch without thinking about it. Before he really came to his senses, he was tucked against Elfo’s warm side, his head resting against the elf and his tail flicking lazily. He should have gotten up once he’d realized what was going on, but… well he didn’t want to. For one evening he could pretend like these stupid feelings of his were mutual. If he was a failure of a demon, at least he could indulge himself in the fantasy that his magnificent sacrifice had been for something.

He dozed off like that, only waking up some time later as Elfo tucked him into his own cushion. Luci leaned in for a final ear scritching before dozing off again. It was the best night of sleep he’d had in a while, even if the morning after was a long and awkward one.

-

“Dinner?” Elfo said, elbows on the bar as he leaned over in his seat. 

It took Luci a few seconds to register the words. His mouth moved faster than his brain on that one. “I don’t serve food.” From the quirk at the corner of Elfo’s mouth, he’d read into that comment wrong and he flicked his ears back in annoyance. “I’m not going to cook you something…”

“No, silly.” Elfo laughed softly at that, reaching out and letting his hand rest on top of Luci’s paw for a second in a too-familiar motion that made Luci’s fur fluff in a distinctly undemonlike manner. “I’m taking you to dinner!” Luci froze at that, his ears flicking back for a few seconds in confusion and uncertainty. Taking him to dinner? If he hadn’t known better, that invitation would have come across a lot like… like…

_Like a date_.

But that didn’t make any sense at all. Elfo was just being generous because that’s how he was. Either that or he was trying to show Luci up with his ability to be a good friend… but no… that was unlikely too because it was _Elfo_ and Elfo wasn’t usually the type of person to try and show someone else up.

But Luci was, goddamn it. On the one hand, he was fine with Elfo taking him out to dinner and treating him because it was the sort of attention he didn’t get enough of and after his efforts to rescue the elf from Hell, it was kind of his due. On the other hand… Elfo treating him to dinner had nothing to do with the Hell rescue and letting Elfo do it was pretty much just putting their ‘relationship’ off-balance by making him owe Elfo for the nice gesture.

He was in the midst of pondering the many levels of implications of who owed who what, when Elfo cleared his throat and it reminded Luci that the elf was still waiting on his answer. He cleared his throat, trying for nonchalance. “Yeah. Sure. Whatever.”

But he was going to get back at the elf for this. He was going to treat him to such a goddamn good dinner that Elfo would have to acknowledge that he was the best at being a generous friend. _Suck on that, Elfo_.

-

It was a nice dinner. Even though it was grudging, Luci had to admit that. Luci didn’t normally go for elf cuisine, and even the one time they’d had dinner with Bean, he’d been pretty annoyed to find that he was getting candy rather than the usual fare. This time he let Elfo suggest something for him and it had turned out a lot better than the gooey chicken-shaped marshmallow from before. It had a bit of spice to it which always sat well with Luci, and the two of them topped off the dinner with glasses of fruity liqueur which Luci might have turned his nose up at if Elfo hadn’t confided in him that it was a higher proof than most of the beer they drank.

The trip home had been a bit of a blur after five glasses of the elf alcohol, and Luci had been forced to concede that maybe the little twerps had more alcohol tolerance than he’d given them credit for… maybe it was just that they could only stand the taste when it was couched under a shit ton of sugary crap. Either way, he was buzzing as Elfo tucked him in.

When he woke up the next morning, he was all the more determined that he was going to prove his awesomeness by showing Elfo up. So, of course, the first words out of his mouth when Elfo came into his room were. “I’m taking you out tonight.”

“Don’t you have to work?”

Okay. Fair point. But it wasn’t one Luci wanted to be reminded of. “I’m the owner. I have to work whenever I say I have to work. And tonight, I’m taking you out.”

He expected Elfo to wave him off and try to insist that there was no need for such a gesture, but instead, Elfo just nodded and chirped out. “Okay.”

-

So that was how it went for a few days… days where Luci’s business suffered a little and yet he still wasn’t getting under Elfo’s skin in any meaningful way. They went to four dinners, two lunches, and one extended brunch. There were also three long walks - one of them was on the beach - and one evening sitting out in the grass on a blanket watching the stars. Also, Luci had picked up a guitar from a nearby pawnshop in order to write an ode to their friendship, even though it mostly turned into a hard rock ballad because… demon.

No matter what he did, it didn’t seem to embarrass or perturb Elfo and that was getting to be a major pain.

But that wasn’t the worst part of it all either… not by a long shot. The worst part was the fact that the more of these little excursions he went on with Elfo, and the more he gave stupid little gifts… the harder it was to remember that this wasn’t an actual relationship of any kind. It was getting to be a pain to not be able to reach across the table at dinner and put his paw on Elfo’s hand and know it wasn’t just some exaggerated gesture of friendship. There were times when he was sorely tempted to try and lean over and give the elf a kiss, except that it would have taken a real moron to not realize that this wasn’t a ‘friendship kiss’ and as much as Luci teased Elfo over his cluelessness, he wasn’t sure that even Elfo would be dumb enough to not miss the romantic intent in such a gesture.

Mostly the problem was that the longer they played at this, the more Luci just wanted it to be something real. They’d spent so much time in the past arguing that he’d never really stopped to consider what a romantic relationship with Elfo might be like. Even their one dance, while ostensibly a romantic sort of activity, had been in the midst of a much larger fight between the two of them. This was more like a game of romantic chicken… like they were just pushing to see who would flinch first... and Luci didn’t want to lose.

He sighed to himself as he looked at the box he’d picked up. It had a little gift in it, just a shiny bauble that he thought Elfo might like after seeing it in a shop. It had cost more than he wanted to admit… which was stupid as hell when it was just a ‘friend gift’. But Elfo would probably actually wear the thing which gave Luci a different sort of pleasant shiver at the thought of the elf walking around with this evidence of Luci’s ‘friendship’ on him.

As he stood on the counter, waiting for Elfo to show up at the bar, he found himself humming softly. He only noticed it when one of his patrons squinted in his direction. “You’re in a good mood lately.”

Luci’s ears flicked a little but his glower lacked any real bite to it. “So what if I am?”

The man was the same asshole who had gotten under his skin that first night when Luci had tried to drown his feelings in booze and had only succeeded at humiliating himself in front of his roommate. Somehow the jerk hadn’t learned his lesson after being kicked out of Luci’s bar the last time, because he was on about the same stupid topics again and again. “So, the two of you finally hooked up, huh?” The man snorted into his drink. “Don’t wanna picture that. A cat and an elf?” He mock-gagged and Luci had the strong urge to whap him with his whiplike tail.

So he did.

“Shut up!” He snapped, but softly, his gaze scanning across the bar to make sure no one else had heard the drunk’s ramblings about the nature of his and Elfo’s relationship. “We’re not together!”

The man should have been chastised by Luci’s anger, but instead, he took it in stride, just swallowing a few more mouthfuls of beer. “Whatever you say. You seem pretty together t’ me. Always hanging on each other. Going out to dinner. You might as well be fucking, is all I can say.” He shuddered again, presumably at the mental image that presented. Luci barely noticed because he was too busy getting lost inside his own head.

The drunk had a point… sure, all of this was just some kind of attempt to show off his skills as a good friend and roommate - or rather, to prove he was better than Elfo at both of those - but functionally it made him look like a sappy romantic who was in his first relationship. They’d gone to dinner and given each other gifts - 

His fingers clenched as he remembered the box he still had under the bar, waiting for Elfo 

\- and they’d gone for a walk on the goddamn beach.

Fuck.

This was getting alarmingly close to going from being just a competition to being a pathetic pseudo-relationship on Luci’s part. He was getting too entangled. At some point, he’d forgotten why he was even doing this and had slipped into doing these little relationship things without thinking about it. His mind was quick to point out that he’d actually helped put up dishes the previous day and then it stuttered to a halt. 

Luci forced his thoughts away from that potentially disastrous path. He rubbed his cloth against the counter hard enough that he could feel the wood beginning to wear and creak underneath his touch. It helped him though, to just focus on that one spot and try to forget everything else. Maybe, with a bit more time, he would have been able to get himself under control and found some way to deal with this. He could have dialed it down, just walked himself back from that precipice he was standing on. 

Just...shoved all of his feelings and desires right back into the goddamn closet where he didn’t have to worry about them anymore. He couldn’t deny that he had feelings for Elfo - not to himself anyway - but there was a difference between realizing it and wanting anyone else to know. He didn’t want this mockery or the inevitable pity that came when it was just him having a stupid emotional need for someone else. Elfo would be nice enough about it - though there was probably going to be at least a little of that smugness that the elf could never really disguise in the few times he’d had cause to lord something over Luci. Hell, Luci would have almost taken that over the idea of being pitied, which was going to be inevitable too.

He was still trying to find some sense of equilibrium, to begin pushing those feelings back, when he heard that familiar but currently unwelcome voice. “Luci!” The demon groaned, letting his head drop for a second until his nose bumped against the counter. His ears went back as he drew a couple of breaths before trying to put his cool persona back on, raising his gaze to look at the elf.

“What?” It came off a bit more snappish than nonchalant, but Elfo was oblivious as ever and he almost bounced as he came up to the counter and clambered onto a stool. His legs swung in the air, a soft hum in his throat as he leaned forward on his elbows. 

He looked so carefree that Luci was torn between the desire to smack him across the cheek for not being more sensitive to the demon’s emotional turmoil and wanting to kiss his stupid green face. Elfo sat there for a second, looking at Luci with a blank cheerful smile before he dipped his head, his fingers tapping against the counter. “I just wanted to stop by.” He started in that obvious ‘leading up to something’ way. He wasn’t being sneaky. He sucked at that kind of thing. But sometimes he still tried to be, the dumbass. “I have something for you…”

Luci’d been expecting something. He’d been giving Elfo a lot of gifts lately in their little competition and while Elfo had always been so happy at receiving them, it was inevitable that sooner or later he’d want to do something more in return to show how good of a friend he was…

Okay, so maybe Elfo didn’t _actually_ think that whenever he got Luci a gift, but it was easier for Luci to think that he did it with some kind of ulterior motive than to have to be reminded that sometimes people were just nice to their friends because they were… ugh… friends.

“Oh really?” Luci said, in a tone that was calculatedly surprised. “A gift, for me?”

Elfo ducked his head a little, flustered for a few seconds. Luci could see a hint of colour coming into his cheeks and it made his chest flutter warmly for a moment. “Yeah.” He fidgeted then looked in the direction of the door instead of pulling something out of his shirt. Wait? What could Elfo have gotten him? Something big? He really was pulling out all the stops, wasn’t he? “If you could just… come with me for a second.” Elfo paused, biting his lip. “I mean if you’re not too busy. It’ll just take a second!”

There were only a couple of people in the bar, including the asshole who seemed to think he and Elfo were in a relationship. Speaking of which… Luci spared a quick sidelong glance in the man’s direction, only to find that the human was looking at the two of them. When Luci caught his eye, the human smirked and then did an exaggerated gagging motion against his drink. The demon would have countered by stabbing the man with his tail again but at the moment he was too far away and Elfo would probably ask why he was beating up on his customers if he did. For the moment, it was easier to simply go along with Elfo and ignore the dig at his expense rather than explaining that some rando thought the two of them were fucking.

“Yeah.” Luci set his cloth down, teeth gritted as he hopped up onto the counter and padded across it to jump down onto the stool beside Elfo. “I think I can spare a moment. But if I lose any business…”

“I know, I know.” Elfo shook his head. “I can cover it.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a gold coin, pressing it into Luci’s hand before hopping to the ground and padding toward the door. He paused just inside it, looking over his shoulder, expectantly.

Luci hoped they weren’t going back to the apartment. As much as he didn’t actually give a shit about the bar from the perspective of his own livelihood - he didn’t need to eat and he didn’t need money so it was more of a status symbol than anything else - he still didn’t want to just leave it unattended with a bunch of drunk humans around. If they trashed the place, he was so going to make Elfo help him clean it up. Or just… make Elfo clean it up himself. But as he reached the door, Elfo didn’t seem to be showing any inclination to go further up the street. He was just standing there, looking at Luci expectantly.

He stayed that way for a few moments longer while Luci stared at him, wondering what the hell he was supposed to be seeing out here. “What? Is it invisible?” He peered past Elfo at the street, frowning as the plague cart went by for the second time that afternoon. “Is it… dead bodies? Cuz I already have a basement full of those.” 

“What?” Elfo sputtered for a second, looking behind him at the cart, then back at Luci. “No! Of course not!” He shook himself then sighed. “Not that. Look…” He pointed instead, upward. Luci’s gaze went to the sky and he almost made another snarky remark about how it was a nice thought but no one actually owned the sun, but then his gaze flitted down again and he froze.

Hanging above his door, the sign that had formerly read “The Flying Scepter” with his own scrawled temporary sign nailed on top of it, had been replaced entirely. The new sign read “Luci’s Inferno” with a nice little flame touch on the letters. It was definitely fancier than his attempts to replace it himself - not that he’d been trying too hard. It had cost money, he was sure. There weren’t that many talented sign makers or woodworkers in the kingdom which meant that Elfo had either gone out of his way to find someone or had purchased the sign from someone out of town. Either way… it was a thoughtful gift. It marked the bar as his own in a way that his temporary sign hadn’t.

As Luci was standing there staring at the new sign, the human drunk came stumbling out, leaning against the doorframe. “Hey! You gonna pour me another or- oh… nice sign. -hic- Looks spiffy.” 

Yeah. Spiffy. That was the word. Luci shuffled from foot to foot for a second, fingers clenching on nothing. Beside him, he could feel Elfo’s gaze on him and he let his ears go back for a few seconds as he struggled to hear his throat. There was something lodged in it…

“Luci…?” Elfo said, after more of this extended silence. “Are… are you okay? Is it… not good? I can bring back the old one…” His voice dropped into that quieter tone, uncertain. Luci swallowed again.

“It’s... “ he turned his head away, not looking at Elfo as he let out a slight cough. “It looks great. Really great.” He twisted his paws together in front of him for a few seconds, his tail swaying behind him. He was struggling not to reach out to Elfo and pull him close in an embrace that might or might not include actual kissing. But no… foolishness. He couldn’t do that. They weren’t actually…

God damn it. How could Elfo give him something thoughtful like this - and probably expensive as fuck - and not actually love him? It wasn’t fucking fair. Luci’s voice emerged in a slight hitch of a breath, just barely avoiding being a sob. When Elfo’s eyes went a bit wide in alarm, Luci waved his hand in the air, pulling back and turning away from him to stride unceremoniously back into the bar on stiff legs. He couldn’t deal with this shit right now. More than that, he felt caught out in this brief flash of emotion… he didn’t want Elfo to see and to know just how badly he’d gotten under the demon’s skin.

He didn’t want this.

He didn’t want to feel this way and he did… Or maybe he didn’t mind feeling this way if Elfo had at least had the decency to return it. All this closeness over the past few weeks since the breakdown had been everything he could have wanted and yet, not enough.

He wanted Elfo. He couldn’t deny it. He wouldn’t. But it still hurt to know his own feelings. And Elfo not returning them… 

Elfo followed behind him at a slight distance, his voice rising high and worried. “Luci? Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine.” He rasped, his voice coming out low and hard, almost a growl. He hopped back up onto the stool nimbly, then up onto the bar. “Another round of drinks, right?” He talked not to Elfo but to the human who had finally staggered back into the bar. He pointedly ignored Elfo’s presence there as he pulled out another glass and filled it with beer, passing it to the man sitting there. He was so busy bustling about with this makeshift busywork that he didn’t even notice when Elfo left the bar.

Once he noticed though, he felt something else… not the relief he wanted. He felt empty. God damn elf. He lowered his head as he moved to grab his rag again. It was dirty from where he’d discarded it on the floor. The man was staring at him and he tried to ignore it. 

“Trouble in paradise, huh?” 

Luci grimaced, flexing his claws and staring at the man with a baleful expression. Despite being drunk and stupid, the human at least possessed enough smarts - or self-preservation instinct - to notice that he was dealing with a very agitated demon and he busied himself with swallowing more of his beer before he could say something to set Luci off like he had a couple of weeks ago.

That was the only positive aspect of the entire ordeal… the fact that he was spared a small amount of added stupidity from the peanut gallery. He needed the small favour because everything else about this was pretty terrible.

It had been a nice gift… thoughtful. Useful. In his time as a mortal, Luci had come to value his position as a bar owner and it was more than just a job, it was helping him rebuild some sense of identity after his expulsion from Hell. A lot of the anger and frustration he’d felt shortly after losing his powers and immortality had settled somewhat with his new status. Other than his relationships with Bean and Elfo, it was probably the thing he valued most about his new life.

So the fact that Elfo had expressed his friendship by investing in Luci’s most valued possession made a lump settle in the demon’s throat.

He got through the evening somehow. It was as much a blur to him as if he’d spent it drinking, but he never touched a drop of his own liquor the entire time. As the bells tolled two am, he looked around to notice that most of the crowd had already thinned, the humans and elves had gone off to pass out at their own homes and aside from a couple of dozing drunks, he was alone.

He paced, cleaning slowly, dragging it out. But soon enough he had kicked out every drunk customer, cleaned every inch of the bar, stacked all the chairs and was sitting surrounded by - relatively - pristine glasses and cups, staring in the general direction of the door. He should have gone home himself. Back to his apartment…

Back to Elfo…

But he didn’t. He sat there by himself until the sun rose on Dreamland.

-


	2. Chapter 2

  
The next few days dragged on. Some nights Luci waited until very late to go back to the apartment, sneaking in when he knew Elfo was likely to be asleep. Other nights he simply slept under the counter in the bar, not wanting to deal with the stress of being close to the elf. It was getting harder and harder to keep his paws to himself, to resist the urge to be closer, to demand more. The elf wasn’t interested in that kind of thing… as far as Luci knew, he’d never shown any interest in men in general, and while Luci himself wasn’t technically male, he still presented himself in a masculine way, which was definitely counter to the people that had caught Elfo’s eye before.

Elfo’s primary interests not only seemed to lean toward women in general but to women who should have, by all rights, been way above his station. It occurred to Luci, after his brief fling with Kissy, that Elfo had a thing for princesses. It would have been laughable if he hadn’t already gotten lucky with Kissy. Either way, as a level zero subdemon slash bar owner Luci couldn’t compare. He didn’t want to wind up in a situation where he inadvertently revealed his feelings, only to be treated with disdain or pity because he just wasn’t what the elf was looking for. He would rather have been tossed into a volcano.

Unfortunately for his efforts, Elfo kept trying to approach him. The elf was already annoying even before he started trying to poke into Luci’s business and this increased attention was pushing him to his limits. The only way he could deal with it was to work harder at avoiding the elf, a feat easier said than done. 

So when Bean showed up on his doorstep, preparing to go on a diplomatic trip, his first question was whether Elfo was going. As soon as Bean assured him that Elfo wasn’t coming along, he was completely on board.

“Watch the bar for me,” he told Elfo, when the elf came in, fretting about the fact that his two best friends - probably his two only friends - were about to go on a trip without him. 

“Really?” Elfo blinked, climbing up onto the stool, his elbows resting on the counter. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“No,” Luci grumbled, frankly. “But it’ll keep you from getting into trouble when Bean’s not around to save your ass.” While the presence of other elves made it less likely that someone would attempt to elfnap their companion again, Luci preferred giving Elfo something to do that would keep him from stupidly seeking out strangers to hang out with. 

Elfo didn’t take the words as Luci meant them though. Instead, he beamed, as if touched by the demon’s concern. “Aww… thank you. Don’t worry, Luci. I’ll take good care of the bar.”

“You’d better.” Was all the demon could bring himself to say before beating a hasty retreat to join Bean.

-

It was a long carriage ride. If Elfo were along, he would have been trying to play some kind of road game, like spotting various wildlife or something stupid like that. As it was, he and Bean passed the trip in relative silence, stealing occasional nips of booze from Bean’s flask. It was almost relaxing, luring the demon into a sense of security.

“Are things okay between you and Elfo?”

Luci jolted to attention, his tail going stiff before giving a lash behind him. He wasn’t sure he’d heard right, ears dipping back hesitantly as he looked sidelong at Bean. “What?” 

Bean was staring at him, expression earnest but a hint of worry in the furrow of her brows as she met his gaze. He’d definitely heard right, based on that searching look in her eyes. He bristled without thinking about it, his calm shattered. It was all he could do to keep his voice light, to not betray the sheer amount of frustration bubbling in him. Even here, with Elfo nowhere near him, he couldn’t get away from the damn idiot. 

“Things are fine.” He managed, between gritted teeth.

The princess didn’t say anything but he could feel her eyes still on him. They traveled for like that for almost an hour, enough time that he dared to relax, thinking that she’d given up on this entire line of conversation. But when he reached for the flask again, he found it tangled firmly in her grasp. It didn’t budge when he tried to pull it from her fingers. He cursed out loud at that, finally looking at her directly. “What?!” His voice came out rough and accusing. “Just say it and let me have my booze.”

As much as he didn’t want to talk about his relationship with Elfo - or lack thereof - dealing with Bean’s passive attempts to get information was somehow worse. And while he was reluctant to confront Elfo, he had fewer qualms with dealing with Bean. He knew her better, they had a lot of traits in common and he could understand how her mind worked. She was no mystery, not even before one took their whole ‘soul bond’ thing into account.

Bean let out a slow breath. “You don’t seem fine.” 

Way to point out the obvious.

She continued, blithely unaware of the sarcasm present in Luci’s thoughts. “You’ve been out of sorts for a while now. I thought maybe it was just that we weren’t spending all our time together since we got back from Hell but…” She leaned forward, earnest. “Elfo was getting worried about you recently.” So Elfo had been talking to Bean about him behind his back? He was half curious what the elf had said about him and half pissed that he was the subject for conversations he wasn’t participating in. He was used to being on the other end of things… talking shit about people behind their backs and mocking them. The thought that someone might be doing it about him…. it got under his skin.

What had they been saying? Something unflattering? Given Bean and Elfo, he kind of doubted it, but the alternative was even worse, somehow. “Oh he was, was he?” He tried not to come across as sour over the fact that his two supposed friends had been talking about him, but the most he could manage was sounding flat. “Was he eager to talk about how he’s always coming around and bugging me at the bar? He doesn’t even drink that much since you’ve been cutting back!” It wasn’t Bean’s fault that she ‘wanted to do something’ with her life, but as a demon, he was pretty good at casting blame.

She didn’t rise to the bait. “Luci. You know he cares about you.”

Yes. It would have taken an idiot to not realize that. But it wasn’t what Luci wanted. He wanted - no… needed - more than that.

“It’s fine.” He repeated, aware that he sounded even less convincing than he had the first time he’d said it. He took another breath, flexing his claws and looking out the window. Trees were speeding past them as the horses pulled the carriage at a steady clip. Elfo would have been playing ‘spot the tree’ right about now. 

Luci missed the sound of his annoying whiny voice.

“It’s not a big deal.” He said, more softly, struggling to make his ears stand up in a normal way. He could only get them to half-mast. He swallowed, turning to meet her gaze directly, as though it could help his case. “I’ll get over it. I just needed a break.” He was aware that he was being too earnest, that he was giving away some of his own inner thoughts, but it was Bean and he could hardly fool her when she was actually trying to read him. So he had to play on her emotions instead, to end this. “It’s really fine.”

Her hand reached out, fingers brushing the top of his head, curling around to scratch behind one ear. Her smile was small and unconvinced. 

“Okay.” She said. Just that. 

He was grateful when she was true to her word, turning the conversation toward the idiots they were trying to convince to actually pay Dreamland’s sanctions. This was the kind of thing that he knew more about, his bread and butter. Humans were easy to manipulate, no matter how clever they thought themselves. This was going to be a piece of cake.

They celebrated their successful mission with a piece of cake each. Neither of them talked about Elfo.

  
-

If that had been the end of things, he could have dealt with it. He hoped for a bit of normalcy when he returned, rather than more of the same. 

Elfo greeted them both with enthusiasm and he had succeeded in not burning down the bar or bankrupting Luci in the four days they’d been gone. As Luci inspected his bar, he noticed that Elfo had also cleaned the place thoroughly, probably out of sheer boredom from not having Luci or Bean around to harass with talk about his feelings.

When Bean thanked Luci before heading back to the castle for some much-needed downtime, it left him alone with the elf he’d gone out of his way to try to avoid. Elfo was smiling as Luci hopped up onto the bar to arrange the glasses in a more haphazard way than the neat rows Elfo had left for him. Leaning on his elbows on the bar, Elfo watched him with surprising calm. “So, how did the trip go?” His voice was light, almost cajoling and Luci again experienced that urge to simultaneously slap him and kiss him. He did neither.

“It went okay.” After the first few words escaped him, he found himself talking more without meaning to. “It was a good thing Bean brought me along. She had them eating out of the palm of her hand-” Zog’s early attempts to make her an ambassador might have been just to make her feel good about herself, but the princess did have a way with normal people that the rest of her family couldn’t seem to manage. Still, as much as Luci could respect that - without being obvious about it, of course - Bean did have some major flaws in her technique, “-but she needs to learn to be more aggressive. But I set her right.” He puffed out his dark chest a bit as he pulled a glass from the now akimbo display and tapped some beer for himself. Without thinking, he poured Elfo a glass too, only realizing what he’d done after he’d already passed it to the elf.

“Bean’s too nice to be cutthroat,” Elfo said, taking a sip. His legs dangled on his stool, swaying slightly in the air as he hummed in contentment. “You don’t have that problem though.” It could have been an insult, but Elfo’s tone didn’t sound like he was trying to be backhanded so Luci took it as a compliment.

“Damn right, I am.” He sat down, letting his legs dangle off the counter. “We make a good team.”

Elfo beamed at him and Luci swallowed hard, burying his muzzle in his glass and feeling a brief moment of gratitude that his inky complexion meant that even if he could blush, it wouldn’t have been visible anyway.

As they finished up their drinks, Elfo reached for his glass, taking it to the bin to wash off while Luci sat there staring after him and wondering when the warm feeling settling beneath his fur had become so familiar to him. 

“Let’s go home?” Elfo said as he came back over and Luci fought the smile trying to break out before he just gave in with an internal sigh. He was too tired from the trip to be able to fully dissemble. He’d just work harder at being an asshole tomorrow to make up for it.

-

“You’re really doing well, aren’t you?” Kissy asked him on one of her rare visits. She didn’t tend to spend a lot of time in Luci’s Inferno, for whatever reason. He expected it was partly because so many of her exes were regulars - not to mention that Luci himself owned the place. Her commitment to put herself first had held true for a while now and she seemed happier for it. Luci felt like he should have been more bitter at seeing her, but as much as he’d enjoyed their brief fling, he knew it hadn’t been as deep as he’d tried to convince himself it was.

He tilted his head at the question, his ears going sideways a little as he tried to puzzle together what she was talking about. “Well, I own a bar and I’m getting filthy stinking rich while also helping people slowly poison themselves, so… I’d say so.”

She laughed at that, a sound that vibrated across his dark hide. “Oh, Luci… you really are unique, you know that?” Her smile was brilliant and he was reminded how much he’d enjoyed his time with her and the way she’d made him feel important, however briefly. He was also reminded of someone else, of another smile and little moments of praise that he’d waited so long for. His motions fell still for a second as he looked at her, feeling a sense of strange wistfulness. 

“There’s no one like me.” He said, but it came out more uncertain than full of braggary. 

Maybe she caught that hesitation because she reached her hand out and rested it across his paw in a gentle motion. “It’s okay, Luci.” She said, “I’m proud of you. You’ve really turned your life around.” He wasn’t sure what she meant exactly. Just because he was now a semi-wealthy bar owner didn’t mean he wasn’t still a jerk and bad boy.

His shoulders rose in a shrug. “It’s nothing.” His tail swished slowly, trying to emphasize how little it mattered, even as he accepted the praise as his due. 

Her next words caught him off-guard. “I liked you when we were dating but you know…. we weren’t really good for each other.” As he stiffened slightly at the reminder of their failed relationship, she continued, her hand still squeezing his paw reassuringly, to take the bite out of her words. “You and Elfo are good for each other.”

He froze at that, a static crackling in his ears for a second, the world blanking out for a second as he struggled to process what she was saying. “...what?”

It wasn’t actually meant to be a question. It just slipped out in his moment of uncertainty and he couldn’t quite catch it. She must have thought it was meant for her though because she repeated herself, even though she’d heard her the first time. “You and Elfo. I’m happy the two of you are together. You bring out good things in each other. He’s been a lot happier since he’s been with you. I liked how dour he was back when we were dating, but being sad like that all the time isn’t good for an elf.”

Luci had always known that Elfo and Kissy had dated before he’d met either of them, but it was something he’d put out of his mind during the times he was with Kissy and especially during the times he was hanging out with Elfo. It was partly because it was hard for him to imagine Elfo as anything other than a weird dorky virgin and though he knew full well that the elf had slept with Kissy at least a couple of times the very notion still broke his brain a little bit… but there was also probably a little bit of jealousy at work too. He didn’t want to think about Elfo being with a woman who was now his ex.

And he didn’t want to think about Kissy with Elfo. His mind still recoiled from that train of thought.

It took a few seconds longer before the actual words sank in, what they meant. His mind was struggling over the Kissy and Elfo angle and it took it a second to catch up. The two of them. Together. Him and Elfo.

Kissy wasn’t the first person to make that assumption, but she was the first person who wasn’t some idiot drunk looking to goggle at some kind of interspecies weirdness. She wasn’t a random bystander. She was Luci’s ex. Elfo’s ex. 

She thought they were… together?

His breath caught in his chest and he had the feeling that his expression was something undignified in the few seconds after her meaning sank in. His fur stood on end, his claws sinking into the smooth wood of the counter as he swallowed hard, trying to find the words to refute it.

“We’re not together!” It came out higher pitched than could be considered convincing and he wanted to smack himself for managing to sound like a lying toddler instead of a badass evil demon. He gritted his teeth, took another breath and spoke again, more steadily. “It’s not like that. We’re not…”. He couldn’t even say the word.

_dating_

He thought his statement was pretty convincing, but there was something in Kissy’s gaze that tore at his confidence. She didn’t apologize for the assumption, just pursing her lips as she looked him over, assessing him. He knew she was smart, it was one of the reasons he’d liked her, but right now it was probably her worst trait.

“But you want to be.” It wasn’t a question. He cursed her internally and wished he had the steadiness to simply deny it without further incriminating himself. When he said nothing, her smile softened, her tone becoming sympathetic. “Luci. You know you don’t have to lie to me.” She raised her fingers to her lips for a second, her expression taking on a hint of a smirk that she couldn’t quite cover. “And… you’re not really good at it… I know you pretty well.”

Of course she did. He’d tried to play the bad boy, to be cool and aloof and an asshole like he was with everyone else, but she’d gotten under his defenses and he’d told her a lot about himself. He cringed internally thinking about it now, how much he’d wanted to bare his soul to her. How much he’d let her know about himself… more than he’d probably intended, given how observant she was. She was right. She could see right through him and he hated it.

But he still couldn’t let it stand… 

“That’s…. it’s ridiculous.” He let out a laugh that was painfully fake to his own ears. “You know me. I have better taste than that. I mean… I went out with you.”

Kissy let out a soft laugh of her own at that, and she dipped her head for a second, looking at him from beneath her lashes in a way that was familiar and flirty. That look had made his heart pound once, if only for a short week or so while they’d been together. Now it just made him wistful for the time when it had made him feel so good about himself. “Flatterer.” She said, smiling.

“It’s true.” He turned his paw in her grip, letting his fingers curl against hers. “I…” he didn’t want to say it, but it was better than the alternative. “I loved you. You know that.” He turned his face away, not looking at her, swallowing. “Maybe… maybe I still do…”

There was a moment of silence, stretching out through several heartbeats before he dared to turn his head back, looking up at her. She was smiling, but it wasn’t that flattered look from before. It was almost sad. “Oh, Luci.” The words came out as a sigh. “I think we both know better than that...”

When she slid her hand away from his, he grasped after it for a few seconds, his fingers twitching in the empty air as she slid down from the stool. She paused, her back to him. He could see the brief heave of her shoulders before she turned her head to look at him over her shoulder. “Luci. You don’t have to worry about it. For a bad boy, you’re really more of a sweetheart than you give yourself credit for.”

He wanted to tell her that it wasn’t a compliment. That being a bad boy was the way demons were and that being a sweetheart - ugh - went against his very nature. But he couldn’t find the words in himself, and by the time he had the breath to speak again, she’d already left. It was the second time she’d walked out the door and out of his life and somehow it hurt more than the first.

Luci wasn’t ready to think about her words and he didn’t want to give her assumptions about him and Elfo any credit. He’d resigned himself to his own emotions a while ago, but just because he’d somehow lost his mind and fallen in love with the elfish idiot didn’t mean that Elfo felt the same way. Kissy was just projecting or something. 

It wasn’t real.

It couldn’t be.

The words repeated themselves in his head, circling like sharks around a drowning swimmer. He threw himself into the work, pouring drinks with a sort of furious dedication and scrubbing the bar and everything in it until his black paws ached. Anything to drive the thoughts and the impossible possibilities from his brain.

Eventually, he entered a sort of exhausted haze, his body feeling on the verge of collapse but pushed on and on by the sheer need to simply do something to take his mind off of himself and Elfo.

At some point, he found himself flopped across his own counter, sometime in the wee hours of morning. His body was so worn and stiff that he could barely twitch his own tail, even as he struggled to push through it.

He heard the sound of his own name on the air, a familiar voice. Then he completely lost his grip on consciousness, falling into a deep - thankfully dreamless - sleep.

When he woke, he was curled on his cushion, in his own apartment, light streaming in through the shitty blinds. He had no recollection of dragging his own tired ass home, just a vague suspicion that a small green busybody had been involved in the process.

The glass of milk set out for him when he finally slunk out of bed and into the main room was enough to confirm his suspicions, but thankfully Elfo was already gone for the day. Luci still had no idea what Elfo was doing for work… or if he was just dicking around and visiting Bean, but either way he was grateful to have the morning alone.

-

Luci struggled a little to stay aloof when Elfo showed up at the bar in the early evening with a basket of sweet rolls and an assortment of elfish jellies. As a demon, Luci didn’t really need to eat, not even after losing his immortality, but it was still a fun indulgence and no matter how much he usually felt the urge to punch nearby elves for being such uptight pansies all the time, they still made some good sweets.

He grunted something that might have been a reluctant ‘thank you’ as he swiped one out of the basket and crammed it into his mouth. Elfo beamed at him, hanging around for a few minutes before excusing himself to the little elves room. Luci set about polishing off the rest of the basket’s contents while Elfo was away and distracted, planning to tell him that some of the patrons had eaten everything if he asked when he got back.

His planned feeding frenzy was cut short as that same annoying dude who had somehow become invested in his and Elfo’s relationship decided to plunk himself down at the bar and order a drink. Luci eyed him suspiciously even as he poured the man a glass, but for the first couple of minutes, there was nothing but a reassuring silence as the man took his drink and knocked it back. It was long enough for Luci to get back to raiding the basket of goods.

Then, the inevitable happened.

“So. You getting the elf anything special?” 

The words made no sense, not even upon a second or two of review time and Luci narrowed his eyes, for once more baffled than angry. “What?” Crumbs flew out of his mouth at the muffled question and he was forced to swallow hard a couple of times before trying again. “Why would I?” As the man opened his mouth, Luci’s voice dropped to a growl, trying to head off the expected answer. “If you say anything about us being together I will cut you off and ban you from my bar.”

At that threat, the man was wise enough to shut up.

Elfo came back from the bathroom a couple of minutes later, seating himself at the bar. Luci poured him a drink, then scurried off to the back to give himself a moment to compose his thoughts, in case Elfo decided to be an asshole and be nice to him or something. He stood on the back doorstep, taking a few drags off his blunt, letting the weed soothe his jangled nerves for a moment before setting back inside.

One of the perils - and sometimes benefits - of being short was that he was usually hidden when moving behind the bar. It sometimes led to people not realizing he was around and giving him good material for future blackmail, which was always a bonus. So he didn’t think too much of it when he came around behind the counter and heard talking going on in front. He did roll his eyes a little as he recognized the voice of the dude who was usually a pain in his ass with all his nosiness. His ears twitched sideways as he heard Elfo’s familiar voice responding to the guy and he had to bite back a growl, hoping that the man wasn’t trying to pull the same nonsense with Elfo. He was ready to jump in when the question came that made him pause in his tracks, ears straining.

“So. Do the two of you have anything planned for your special day?”

Special day? The demon’s already quiet advance became even more silent, his paws barely making a sound against the wooden floor.

“Nothing big,” Elfo said, tone light and upbeat. “I was just thinking of having a nice dinner out. Maybe some cuddling afterward.”

Oh. Well, that was probably just Elfo talking about them hanging out. They did frequently go to dinner and Elfo was always overly affectionate and cuddly with him lately. Weird to have the one drunk frame it as somehow ‘special’ as though they didn’t do it all the damn time though. Maybe it was just because it had been a while since they’d gone out for dinner.

...it had been, hadn’t it? Over a week… since he and Bean had gotten back from their ‘diplomatic’ trip. As much as Luci was loathe to admit it, he’d missed Elfo treating him to dinner like a sucker. His tail swished, pleased that Elfo was planning to treat him to a nice meal and then shower him with the attention he deserved… even if he was going to act annoyed about it afterward.

The next question took the wind out of his sails. It was like a sucker punch to the gut. “So, when are you planning to let people know you’re taken?”

Luci’s eye got wide at that, the breath catching in his throat. He couldn’t have heard what he’d thought he heard…. Or if he had… it couldn’t mean what it sounded like. Who would even go out with Elfo?

_He’d fucking **kill** them._

Elfo let out a soft laugh at that, not denying it as Luci both hoped and expected. “We’re taking it slow.” He said and Luci felt something that wasn’t really his heart - demons didn’t have such ridiculous organs - plummet right down to his feet. “I don’t think we’re ready to go public quite yet.”

 _Who_? That was the question on Luci’s mind. That and _how_? He could only conclude that something had happened in the days he and Bean had been gone on that stupid trip away from Dreamland. The bar was a good place for people to meet and hook up, especially since lots of folks got drunk and were more liable to give someone ridiculous and dorky - like Elfo - a chance once they were good and plastered. And Elfo had been serving the drinks… everyone knew that bartending added an air of sex appeal to even the blandest sort of person…

Luci’s breath was hitching in his chest, his paws flexing and clenching, ears pinned flat against his head as he tried to process everything. Why hadn’t Elfo told him? Was this why Elfo had been less touchy-feely with him since he’d returned from his trip? Was he cuddling someone else and petting their ears? The mental image was actually pretty ludicrous, but Luci couldn’t help but see red for a few seconds. 

For a moment, he couldn’t breathe… and he didn’t even _need_ to breathe. Maybe it was partly the fact that he was also starting to feel the weed kick in, but the usual comforting high was instead making him feel twitchy and anxious. Maybe he just hadn’t had enough weed…

God damn it. He wasn’t sure it was possible to have enough weed to make himself feel better right now. The only thing that would make him feel better was finding out who the asshole dating Elfo was and punch them the fuck out.

His not-heart was pounding hard in his ears as he turned on his heel and retreated toward the back exit again, almost stumbling over his own feet in his haste.

Every near-silent patter of his own moving paws just hammered in the questions over and over. _Who. When? Why?_

_Who. Who. Who._

Luci dropped his blunt as he struggled to light it, watched it roll in the dirt and let his breath out in a snarl that sounded suspiciously like a sob. He speared it through with the spade of his tail and smoked it anyway, hoping to drive the questions away.

It didn’t though. They just came in time to the uneven, desperate drags of Twinkletown Gigglebud. Over and over without respite. He finished the entire blunt and it still took everything in him to actually go back inside. He had a too-wide smile plastered to his lips, relieved that at least the weed had taken some of the edge off of his reactions so he was able to get through Elfo’s brief greeting without breaking down.

After the elf left though, he crouched behind the counter, shaking. He didn’t even come out to charge customers, letting them stumble off drunkenly without paying.

Elfo was having a special night with someone. Even if Luci had wanted to -

_and he did, god damn him… why had he hesitated?_

-there was nothing he could do about it now...

-

He closed down the bar early. Doing anything else would have been utterly stupid and even when he was on the verge of heartbreak, Luci wasn’t quite gone enough to throw his money away by letting drunks get away with not paying their bills. Besides, he really didn’t want to deal with anyone at the moment. He was able to take some small satisfaction in the complaints and whining from the semi-drunk patrons who were being denied the right to more beer, but it wasn’t nearly enough to actually make him feel better.

After skulking around in the empty bar for a few minutes longer, he decided to go home so he could wallow in peace. Elfo was going to be out with his new girlfriend - or boyfriend or whoever the fuck he was secretly dating now - so he’d have the place to himself. It would also present him with a good opportunity to get completely plastered and trash Elfo’s room

He’d barely settled in with a flask of whiskey and a couple of mugs of ale, ready to get properly buzzed, when Elfo decided to be an inconvenient bastard and show up like he owned the place. Luci glared at the elf as he entered the room, all chipper with a bounce in his step and a bottle of what looked like expensive wine held in the crook of his arm. He was also carrying one of those boxes of elf-chocolates which probably eliminated an elf as the possible secret lover, considering Elfo’s scoffing at the notion of Luci giving Kissy candies earlier.

Elfo froze a few steps into the room as he noticed the demon’s gaze on him, his yellow eyes going wide for a second at the sight of Luci on the couch surrounded by plentiful alcohol. Luci had no idea what the elf must have been thinking about what he was seeing and he honestly didn’t care. He was just drunk enough - and angry enough - that he didn’t give a shit anymore about what Elfo thought. In the back of his mind, he was aware that this confrontation could drive the elf away for good, but was there really any point in holding onto hoping for something that was never going to happen? They’d known each other long enough… if it was going to happen, it would have already happened. There was nothing left for him but to express his anger and hurt in a way that would hopefully hurt Elfo back a little in return.

Yeah, it wasn’t the best reaction but he was already tipsy and he’d been sitting around in the bar for hours thinking about all the ways he’d screwed up on what should have been a perfect opportunity. He’d gotten Elfo to move in with him, damn it. Surely persuading the elf to give him a chance shouldn’t have been so hard…

“So. You’re back early.” Luci tried to keep his voice calm and cutting, but he felt like the way his ears went back and the agitated swishing of his tail - which had a mind of its own - were more than enough to give him away. When Elfo just stared at him blankly, Luci had to continue, to fill the silence. “What about your ‘special night’?” He shuffled forward on the couch so his legs were dangling over the edge. Elfo was still standing there, looking at him, then down at the items he was carrying as though they held some kind of answer. The confusion on his face hadn’t lessened… in fact, he seemed even more baffled now.

Well, Luci could clear that up for him. So much for beating around the bush. “So, about this whole ‘secret relationship’...” he drawled out, cursing the elf silently for making him say it and making him feel this stab of despair as he finally uttered the words.

For some reason, Elfo actually seemed relieved by the question. Maybe he’d been tired of hiding it from Luci. He had always sucked at lying.

“O-oh. You mean that.” The elf set his bottle of wine down on the coffee table, looking at Luci with a slight hint of a smile.

Luci felt his temper threatening to flare again, but he clamped down on it. At the very least, he needed to know who it was because he’d be damned if he wasn’t going to revenge himself on whoever’d stolen his elf away from him. His voice managed to come out remarkably steady, “So. You haven’t said anything about it.” His paws settled on the couch, on either side of his hips, digging into the ratty fabric. 

The confusion was back on Elfo’s face for a moment, his brow furrowed as he stared at Luci, uncomprehending for a few seconds before he bobbed his head in a curt nod. “Well, yes.” He began, slowly. Maybe he could tell that Luci was already tipsy, but even so, his words were confirmation that he’d heard right earlier, behind the bar... “I haven’t said anything about it.”

“No shit,” Luci said with a groan, closing his eyes for a second. The faint hope he’d held out that maybe he’d heard wrong or made a bad assumption based on the words of some stupid drunk, faded with the elf’s admittance. It was true. “Why the fuck not?” He had a hard time not being snappy when Elfo was normally such a blabbermouth. The fact that he hadn’t said anything about being in a relationship probably meant it was serious enough that he was afraid of the reactions.

“I…” Elfo hesitated, his fingers fidgeting at the front of his shirt as he finally set aside the box of chocolates as well. “I didn’t think you were ready…”

Ready? He wanted to laugh at the wording. It wasn’t like Elfo was wrong. He hadn’t been ready to hear this. Despite himself, all the times he’d reminded himself that his feelings were stupid and useless and bound to be unrequited, he’d still hoped…. He’d never managed to prepare himself for the possibility. He’d told himself over and over that even if Elfo was never going to be with him, at least he’d never be with anyone else either because he was too much of a failure as a person, much less a potential love interest.

Had it been a little mean? Maybe. But c’mon, the elf was the biggest dork Luci had ever met and that was saying something.

All of that reassurance to himself had been for nothing. It was happening. And now, confronted with it, Luci was realizing what he should have known all along… all the way back to Elfo’s untimely demise. He hadn’t been able to let Elfo go. He’d gone to Hell because he hadn’t been able to let the idiot go.

How could he ever be ready to give Elfo up?

He couldn’t...

Now, presented with the reality of it, the only thing he could still manage to do was put on the front that was already worn thin. The asshole demon. The asshole _friend_. That was all he had left. So he forced the edge back in his voice, the veil of sarcasm. “Well, I guess I don’t envy whatever idiot decided to actually go out with you.”

At Luci’s - admittedly sad - attempt at a snarky quip, Elfo stared, his mouth opening for a second as though he was about to ask something, then snapping shut again. The blank confusion on his face made him look like a landed fish.

He said nothing.

Desperation settled in Luci’s chest at the prolonged silence. Elfo wasn’t rising to his jabs and, even worse than that, he still hadn’t divulged the identity of his love interest. Luci bit down on his emotions, trying to display nothing but his usual mean indifference as he goaded the elf, needing more. Confirmation. “Why not just yell it out to the world and get it over with then!” His voice pitched high on the last word, almost breaking, and he threw his hands in the air, a gesture of frustration and hopelessness. “What’s the point of playing cool? Just rip it off like a bandage!”

Elfo stared at him, stuttered a small sound that wasn’t quite actual words, then looked down at the floor for a second. There was a hint of colour rising in his cheeks and Luci could see the moment he finally broke, giving a quiet nod to no one. “I… I guess so…”. But he didn’t turn to Luci, didn’t immediately confess the identity of the person he was secretly dating. Instead, to the demon’s bewilderment, he went to the window instead, throwing it open.

As Luci sat there, on the couch, staring at Elfo’s back, the elf took a deep breath. His voice was high and reedy, carrying on the air. “Luci and I are dating!”

It didn’t register for a few seconds, as Luci stood there, staring at Elfo’s back in dumb surprise. When Elfo finally turned toward him again, his face red, Luci had already eased off of the couch and was standing there, only a short distance from the elf.

The demon’s mouth opened and closed for a second, no words coming out. He tried again and what emerged was a croak of dumb surprise. “W-what the fuck was that?”

Elfo tensed at the question and Luci could see some of the elf’s familiar stubbornness in the set of his lips and the slight, defensive, rise of his shoulders. His green fingers curled into fists, his voice turning shrill and whiny. “It’s what you told me to do!” He crossed his arms, pouting as he deliberately stared at a point slightly off to the side, not looking directly at Luci. Normally Luci hated this kind of passive-aggressive behaviour when it was aimed at him, at the moment, he was far too caught up in his own denial and confusion.

“We’re not dating!” He yelped back, freezing where he stood as things flitted through his mind, all the little things that had made no sense before, but now… with context...

Since that night he’d talked about his feelings, Elfo had been acting differently toward him. The dinners out, the walks together, the long evenings of just hanging out and cuddling more than was really normal even for Elfo. They were all ridiculous and weird behaviours from the perspective of simple friendship...

Also… the way people would comment about the two of them,... Bean asking him questions about their relationship… Kissy being so sure that they were together…

Somehow they’d known. Holy hell…. somehow they’d known better than Luci had...

“Holy shit... We’re dating!” He blurted out the words without thinking, his ears tucked flat in chagrin, even as the pounding of his not-heart was a throbbing ache in his chest. How had he missed it? God damn… was he that big of an idiot?

Elfo was putting the pieces together on his end too and Luci was realizing that Elfo hadn’t known they weren’t on the same page either. “You didn’t know?” He squeaked out before raising a hand to cover his mouth, his gaze fixed on the floor and his face so red that he seemed on the verge of fainting.

Luci panted for a second, trying to gain some semblance of control over his racing mind. “I thought you were just being weird!”

Elfo went silent at that, hands still pressed to his cheeks, eyes closed for a moment. “O-oh my god…” He shook his head finally daring to dart a glance up at Luci, fisting his fingers in a death grip in the fabric of his shirt. “I… I’m sorry.” Luci stared at him, not sure why he was apologizing. The feeling pulsing in him wasn’t anger anymore, that had disappeared with the clarification. Instead it was barely restrained anticipation that vibrated through his body. He felt like he was shaking.

  
The elf was obviously unaware of the excitement in Luci, probably assuming that the demon was angry at this mix-up. He was stumbling over his words, trying to reassure Luci. “I… I’ll tell them… it was a mistake… I just thought…” He shook his head, turning back toward the window. It occurred to Luci that the dumbass was probably about to literally yell out to the world that they weren’t dating, and the thought galvanized him to motion.

“Don’t!” He barked out. Elfo froze, looking at him. There was a slight quiver to his lip and to his hands where they struggled to remain at his sides. Luci swallowed, striding forward. He kept his legs stiff because they were threatening to go all rubbery and give way under him and pitch him to the floor. “I’ll do it.”

There was a slight shift in Elfo’s expression, the elf biting his lip before nodding silently, stepping aside without a word. 

Luci strutted forward to take Elfo’s place beside the open window. He was forced to lean up on his toes, his claws digging into the sill as he poked his head out, drawing a deep breath. What was he thinking? It briefly occurred to him that he was about to humiliate himself in front of the world, but he could worry about regretting it later. He turned his face to the air and yelled out at the top of his lungs, “Okay, I’m dating the elf! Are you happy now?!”

Embarrassing, yeah. But as soon as the words left his mouth, he felt lighter. Giddy.

He was in the middle of turning to look at Elfo when a frustrated croak came back from somewhere in Elf Alley. “Would you idiots shut up?! We all knew that already!!”

Despite himself and his inevitable embarrassment when he was working the bar tomorrow and had to deal with some angry elves and that smug prick who’d been bugging him about their ‘relationship’ for the last month, Luci was feeling pretty good at the moment. He pulled the window closed, turning back awkwardly before rubbing his neck. “Uh… you do still want to go out with me, right?” It only just occurred to him, way too late, that all this awkwardness might have made Elfo change his mind about the whole thing.

Elfo was staring at him though, hands clasped in front of him. His yellow eyes had a bit of a wet shine to them like he was on the verge of tears. He was smiling though. He shook his head slightly at the question, and before Luci could ponder if that was supposed to be a no, he answered more clearly, rushing in to embrace Luci. “Yes!”

They held on to each other for an embarrassingly long time and as they embraced, Luci was once again noticing the things Elfo had brought in, all the little details that he’d been too preoccupied to register in his anger and hurt at thinking he’d missed his chance. The card attached to the box of chocolates was open and he could see the “Happy Anniversary” written in cheerful flowing Elfo handwriting, followed by a tiny heart.

...It was, wasn’t it? A whole month since the night Luci had gotten plastered at the bar and bawled out his feelings into Elfo’s shirt. He felt like he should still be embarrassed by that, but somehow he wasn’t anymore.

He swallowed hard, finally pulling back from the embrace, looking up at Elfo without letting too much distance settle between them. “I know it’s been a night and technically I didn’t realize we were going out all this time but…” He swallowed, grinning like an idiot. “Fuck it, let’s have that anniversary celebration We’ve been dating for a month!” He cleared his throat, again glad that demons couldn’t really blush. “I didn’t get you anything.” He confessed, as though it wasn’t already obvious.

Elfo just laughed, as Luci had hoped - and expected - he would, his hands dangling in the fur behind Luci’s ears, ruffling through it. “It’s fine.”

Luci ducked his head for a moment before arching up into the affectionate touch. He could get used to this. A thought occurred to him, a tiny bit of annoyance that was more amusing now than anything. “Man… this means I’m going to have to tell that nosy weirdo at the bar that he was right…. god damn it.”

There was no heat to his words though, and Elfo just gave his head a little shake, smiling as he pulled Luci into their first kiss. A whole month late, but completely worth the wait.

  
-End-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Luci's honestly so bad at emotions. :D He's more of a dumbass than he'd like to admit.
> 
> Thanks for reading everyone! I've got more in the works! If you'd like to keep up to date on progress, be sure to check out my tumblr. It's tothineownelfbetrue and has artwork and other updates!


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